Crybabies
by Aviv b
Summary: There's a whole bunch of crybabies at Ianto and Jack's house. Obviously AU since everyone is alive and well and retired from TW3.


**Summary: There's a whole bunch of crybabies at Ianto and Jack's house.** This was written for a schmoop bingo challenge on LJ. The prompt was **Crying****  
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A/N: AU -Jack and Ianto are retired from Torchwood and enjoying life in their house in Cardiff. Ianto is in his early sixties, Jack is still immortal. No CoE or Grey.

**I'd love some more comments!**

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"Jack! Have you been messing about with the compost pile?"

"No, why, what's the matter?"

"I'm not sure, it just seems like something's wrong here."

Jack studied the pile they had started a month ago walking around and adjusted the tarp covering it. "I think as the organic matter breaks down there's been a little shifting and settling, and it looks like the wind might have moved the tarp a bit."

"That must be it; it looked a bit lopsided to me."

They went into their garden shed to get some tools. Like everything in their home, Ianto had organized the shed to perfection. Pruners and trimmers were hanging on hooks on one wall and small power tools were neatly sitting on shelves. Rakes and shovels were hung on the back wall and an area on the far side of the shed had potting soil, fertilizer and clay pots in various dimensions stacked up by size. Next to the posts there was an old but sturdy whitewashed wood table that Ianto used for potting plants and other assorted tasks.

Ianto grabbed a rake and exited the shed. He looked around one more time and shook his head. Jack was right. He had had an odd feeling of being watched but now it was gone.

"_Time to finish the garden up for winter," _Ianto thought. It was early October but the weather had suddenly taken on a distinctly late fall feeling. They hadn't had a hard frost yet, but a couple of mornings Ianto had noticed a little bit of frost on the grass when he looked out the window.

The last of the fall flowers were blackening at the tips following the frost, and a hard cold rain two days ago had blown more than half the leaves off the trees. Ianto pulled out the last of the annuals and cut back the rose bushes. Jack followed behind carefully covering up the rose bushes so they wouldn't be destroyed by the winter ahead. They both raked up the leaves that had fallen, adding them to a small compost pile. They re-covered the pile with the big black tarp.

"I think it's going to be a cold winter, Ianto."

"Yeah, I think so too. It's sure a bloody cold autumn," Ianto replied. "Anyone up for some hot chocolate?"

"As long as I can have hot Ianto with it."

Ianto smacked Jack on his arse as he went to put the rakes and other tools away. He locked up the shed and headed back to the house. He looked back quickly as he was sure he heard some movement behind him, but no, everything was still. _"I wonder if I'm losing my mind…or perhaps picking up on some rift energy." _Ianto shrugged and went to join Jack inside.

As he opened the door he heard Jack call out, "Oh Ianto I have something hot and tasty for you…and it's not the cocoa."

Ianto smiled as he could think of no better way to spend the rest of this cold afternoon.

The weather continued to be cold so Ianto and Jack spent most of their time indoors. Several times Ianto could have sworn he saw something move out of the corner of his eye as he walked past the windows looking out on the yard, but he didn't see anything amiss.

"Ianto I saw your intruder," Jack told him a week later. "I was up last night and saw a shadow move through the yard. I turned on the pathway lights and saw a little creature running away. I think we've got a raccoon making a den in the compost pile."

They both agreed that given how cold it was, it was more than possible that an animal had burrowed into the compost pile for warmth. After some debate they decided to just let it alone.

"Now that I know it's just a cold little animal, I'm not really concerned. I'd prefer it found somewhere else to live, but it's really not bothering anything," Ianto said, mostly relieved that he wasn't imagining things.

The weather improved at the end of the week, the sun came out and it warmed up a bit. Still brisk, but at least the air didn't have the bone-chilling cold to it. Jack had gone into the yard just to check on how the roses were holding up when he spotted her. He tip-toed a little closer to see her den and then called Ianto on his cell.

"Come out into the yard as quietly as you can," he whispered. "You won't believe what I'm looking at."

Ianto came outside and Jack motioned him over. Tucked into the compost pile were a litter of kittens. The kittens were black, black and white and one was yellow or maybe orange. They were all in a bunch and it was hard to tell how many was actually there.

"It looks like five kittens," Ianto said. "They must be just days old, they don't even have their eyes open yet."

"I think there may be six; the black and white lump is actually two kittens, I'm pretty sure. I saw the mother come out from under the tarp and trot off. She's black with green eyes."

They looked for just a minute more and then moved away so they wouldn't scare off the mother when she came back. They watched from the window and saw the mother come back a little while later. She looked around to make sure no one was observing her and slipped back under the tarp.

Both Ianto and Jack were concerned about the kittens so they called their local RSPCA. From their descriptions, the counselor thought the kittens were probably about 5 days old. They were advised that unless the kittens were in danger they should leave them in their mother's care. If they wanted to tame the kittens they could remove them from the mother around four weeks but if not, to just leave them alone so that the mother didn't bolt. The kittens looked ok to them and they decided to just leave them alone.

Then the weather turned bitter cold and for three days there was rain and sleet and a howling wind. Both men fretted about the cat and her kittens and watched carefully for her comings and goings.

The last day of the storm Ianto woke up in the middle of the night to find Jack pacing anxiously by the window at the back of the house.

"What's wrong?"

"I've not seen the mother cat since dinner time. I'm starting to get worried."

Ianto didn't want to think about what a missing mother could mean for the kittens. "She probably snuck back in when you weren't looking…I hope." He moved to stand next to Jack and put an arm around his shoulder.

Jack smiled. "I'm sure your right. Go back to bed."

"And what about you?"

'I'm staying out here until I see the mother cat."

Ianto went back to bed but couldn't sleep. After an hour he got back up to see if Jack had seen anything. He found Jack at his computer.

"Anything happening?"

"No, and I'm getting worried. I've been reading that kittens can't survive very long without their mothers. I'm going out as soon as it's light and checking on them."

"Now you've got me nervous. I can't sleep either so I'm going to get on my computer and do some reading myself."

At first light the men carefully went out to the compost pile. If the mother was there they didn't want to frighten her. As Jack had feared the mother was no where to be found and the kittens were shivering from the cold. A few of the kittens cried pitifully while a few seemed too weak to even voice their distress. Ianto ran back into the house and pulled the blanket off their bed.

"Quick Jack grab the kittens and get them in the blanket." Jack began to pull kittens out of the pile. A black one, a black and white one, another black and white, a yellow tabby, two more black and a calico.

"Duw, seven of them. Go get the car warmed up."

Jack looked at Ianto in confusion.

"These kittens need to get to a vet right away. See how they're shaking – they are hypothermic. I already checked, and the vet down by the Tesco's opens at 8 AM." It 7:30 now so lets get over there. I read you should never feed cold kittens so its best to see if we can't warm them up a bit until the vet opens. As they waited in the car, Ianto and Jack stuck the kittens under their shirts against their skin. The kittens were quite chilly. Jack didn't have to ask Ianto; the look on his face told him that cold kittens were not a good thing.

The vet examined the kittens and had serious concerns. The kittens were indeed hypothermic. She was most concerned about the smallest of the litter, one of the black cats, a female who was only about half the size of her siblings.

"I'll be honest with you, I don't this little girl has much of a chance. If you want, we can put her to sleep. I know it sounds harsh, but she's obviously not thriving. It could be a variety of viruses or a congenital problem. And you have six other kittens that will need to be kept separately from this little one. I think you have a much better chance of pulling the six through if you aren't burdened with the seventh one.

Ianto asked if he and Jack could have a moment to discuss their choice. "Not a problem, I'm going to take these in the back to have fluids administered under each kitten's skin. I'll be back to discuss kitten care in a few minutes."

Jack and Ianto looked at each other, neither one wanting to be the first to speak. Finally Jack surprised them both by starting to cry. "I don't know what we should do Ianto. I really don't."

Ianto wiped a few tears from Jack's face. "I think we have to let her go," he said with his voice breaking. "I think the vet is telling us in the gentlest way possible that she's not going to live. And if we take her home and then lose her it's going to be that much harder. Hell we don't even know if we can save the bigger ones."

Jack agreed with Ianto's assessment. They told the vet their decision when she came back a few minutes later. "I think you've made the right decision. The other six are going to keep you very busy for the next few weeks…so let's go over what you are going to need to do."

The vet reviewed what Jack and Ianto would have to do to try to save the kittens. Much to her surprise, Ianto nodded and began to add additional information to her instructions.

"Now you have to be careful if you use an eye dropper to feed the kittens."

"Can't force any fluid or they'll get it in their lungs," Ianto said. "You wouldn't happen to have some nursing bottles we could borrow?"

The vet smiled. "Someone's done their homework." She began to relax a bit. Most people who tried to raise orphan kittens this young were well-meaning but not knowledgeable or diligent enough to have much success. They continued to talk with Jack contributing ideas for keeping the kittens warm and for creating a nest for them and Ianto asking detailed questions about the various milk replacements he had read about on-line. The vet demonstrated how to feed the kittens, clean them, socialize them and help the them evacuate.

"I don't normally do this but here's my cell phone number. If you run into trouble, call me. If things are running smoothly I'd like to see the kittens back here in ten days."

The six kittens were brought back to the examining room and the vet told them what she was able to determine. They were about two weeks old and were a bit small due to the size of the litter and the harshness of the conditions they were living under. The two remaining black ones were female, the black and white tuxedo cats were both males, the yellow tabby was male and the calico, not surprisingly was female.

"They are still a little cold, so put them on a heating pad wrapped in a blanket when you get home. I'm packing up six nursing bottles, enough replacement milk to last you for two weeks and don't forget to sterilize everything after every feeding."

Due to their frail condition, the vet recommended smaller but more frequent feedings which meant that Jack and Ianto were going to be feeding every four hours round the clock.

"Not so bad with two of us," Jack said.

The vet laughed. "We'll see what you think after ten days of that schedule. The good news is that if they do well, you'll be able to start transitioning them to solid food and fewer feedings."

Once home Jack set up a nursery box for the kittens. Ianto prepared formula for the first round of feedings. Ianto was in charge of the black and white and the calico kittens while Jack took care of the black females and the yellow tabby.

Both men proved surprisingly adept at feeding kittens, but only Jack could get them to burp. "Ok, hand over the calico," Jack said gently lifting the kitten out of Ianto's hand. He put the kitten against his shoulder and patted it gently much like you would with a baby. After a few moments the little kitten made a popping sound. "Well that's done."

Ianto got off the floor and groaned as he stretched his back. "Time to sterilize everything for the next feeding. " By the next morning, the kittens all seemed to be holding their own and their body temperatures had returned to normal. They were a bit more active climbing over each other to try to get out of the box.

The next few days were hectic as they got the hang of the feeding six kittens. At dawn, invariably one of the kittens would wake up and start crying for food. Almost always the others would start crying as well. Ianto already had bottles ready that he had made up four hours earlier. He quickly warmed them up and then they would proceed to feed, burp and help the kittens use the litter box. The kittens would sleep for a bit, but then they'd be crying again, this time for attention. Ianto had purchased a few toys that the kittens seemed totally indifferent to. After all, what could be more fun than wrestling with each other? And when they got bored with that there was the exciting game of pouncing on Jack or Ianto's feet and biting their toes.

"Ow, watch it you little demon," Jack said to one of the black and white cats as he sunk his claws into Jacks ankle. Jack lifted him off his foot and rolled him on his back. The kitten kicked in play as Jack tickled his belly.

Meanwhile Ianto was cuddling the calico. She was a bit shier than her littermates and would run and hide when the play got too rambunctious. "You're going to make a very nice lap cat." he said as he scratched under her chin. The kitten purred loudly and closed her eyes in pleasure.

Soon the kittens were exhausted and Jack and Ianto gathered them up and returned them to the nursery box. Jack would sterilize the bottles while Ianto prepared the next batch of formula. In less than 3 hours, they'd be at it again.

After ten days they took the kittens in for a vet check and were pleased to find that all the kittens had gained weight and were pronounced to be out of danger. The vet confessed that she wasn't sure that Jack and Ianto would be able to save all the kittens. "You've done a brilliant job with them. I'm not often surprised but for people who haven't had kittens before, you've worked wonders."

They took the kittens home and after another week begin to add a little wet food to their diet. They had to put together a new nursery area to accommodate the growing babies and ended up using a large storage trunk. They cut back the feedings to every six hours and the crying of hungry kittens filled the house on what seemed to be a constant basis.

Normally the third Wednesday evening of the month was their pub night with their friends from Torchwood – Gwen and Rhys and Owen and Tosh (yes they had finally gotten married) almost always came. Andy also joined them on occasion.

Ianto was too nervous about leaving the kittens untended so he called Gwen to tell her what was going on.

"You've what?" Gwen yelled excitedly. "Oh, can I come over and see them? I love kittens." When Ianto tried to postpone her visiting, Jack grabbed the phone and invited Gwen and Rhys over for the evening.

"Well of course, we can't leave them out…can you call the others and let them know they are all invited over here for the evening. Yeah, seven thirty is fine, we'll see you then," Jack told Gwen.

Ianto just shook his head when Jack hung up the phone.

"Oh come on, the kittens need more socialization and these are our best friends. So what if the place isn't spotless, they won't care."

Jack was right of course. Gwen and Tosh squealed as they cuddled the kittens. "Oh, they are just adorable," Gwen gushed. The kittens went a bit wild with all the new people in the house. They cried to be held, they cried to be put down, then they cried again in indignation that they weren't getting nearly enough attention.

Tosh was fascinated with all their kitten skills. "They really are clever aren't they? Look at that little black and white one climbing your curtains. He's really determined."

"Duw," Ianto said getting up to retrieve the climbing kitten. "Curtains are not for climbing. You're a bad boy Tux, into the penalty box you go," he said placing the kitten in the nursery box which now that the kittens had grown had been converted into the 'time out' zone. The kitten looked around bewildered for a moment, jumped out of the box and then raced across the room to tackle his twin.

Rhys and Andy were also charmed by the kittens. The only one who was not enamored with them was Owen. Rhys thought he was just being a bad sport so he picked up one of the black kittens and put him in Owen's lap. "See how cute it is," Rhys teased.

"Yes, just adorable," Owen snarked.

"You're not afraid of a teeny tiny kitten are you?"

"Afraid, no." Owen paused for a moment. "ACHOO! Allergic yes." Tosh quickly grabbed the kitten out of Owen's lap. "Good thing I brought some antihistamines with me."

Rhys was embarrassed and apologized but was soon distracted by one of black kittens climbing onto his shoulder.

"So have you named them?" Andy asked.

"Not really," Jack replied. "We have to find homes for them soon and we figured that the adopters would probably want to pick out names."

Ianto smiled. "But we have our own names for identifying them particularly since we have two black females and two male tuxedo cats."

"Yeah, I can see why they call the black and white ones that, is that a breed?"

"No just a pattern, but that's why the one climbing the curtain we call Tux. The other one is a bit quieter and more graceful so we call him Fred."

Seeing the confusion on everyone's face Jack explained that Fred was named for Fred Astaire. "Well we have a wandering tuxedo Tom in the neighborhood that we call Fred Astaire and we're pretty sure these two are his children.** The paternity of the others remains unknown."

Jack recounted the whole saga of watching the mom cat and her kittens, the mom disappearing and the rescue of the litter.

"We lost one," Ianto said sadly. "Another little black female." Everyone could see that Ianto was upset and they tried to cheer him up.

"But look at what a great job you've done with these six," Rhys said. "They'll be ready for their new homes in no time."

"I know, that's the problem. I'm going to miss them. And I'm going to worry about whether they are being well taken care of. And we'll never get to see them again." Ianto wiped his eyes. "And no, I'm not crying."

Rhys looked over at Gwen who nodded. They had had an interesting discussion on the way over and Rhys was just waiting for the right moment to act. "You know, Gwen and I were talking on the way over about how empty the house seems now that the kids are grown. Would you consider letting us adopt one of your kittens? You probably don't know that we both had cats and dogs growing up, but with Torchwood and then the children, we never had time for pets."

"And we'd love to hear the pitter patter of little feet, I'm mean paws, again in the house," Gwen said laughing.

Ianto was almost afraid to ask. "Which one were you thinking about?"

"The black cat with the green eyes is just gorgeous," Gwen said. "Though as I think about it, isn't it better to adopt in pairs so they have a friend. It looks to me like she gets along well with the other black female. I have to say, I don't think I've ever seen a cat whose eyes are so golden in color."

"What you think Ianto?" Rhys asked nervously. "Do we pass the good parenting test?"

Ianto looked at Jack who nodded. "That would be great. I'd have a lot of peace knowing they were with you."

"We of course, will want to do an open adoption, with visitation rights." Jack said laughing.

"And if you haven't had cats since you were kids, you might be surprised at how much care has changed."

"No doubt you will be sending us detailed information on the care and feeding of cats," Gwen teased.

Ianto laughed. "Yeah once a researcher, always a researcher. I've got gobs of stuff off the Internet on the best way to care for kittens. You do have to promise me two things."

"Uh oh, here it comes," Owen warned. "He's going to want summer holidays and every other Christmas."

"You have to neuter them at the proper age and not let them roam your neighborhood." Gwen looked a bit startled by Ianto's second request. "I know, you always let your cats roam when you were kids, but times have changed. There are a lot more hazards outside your yard than when you were growing up. We don't know what happened to the Mum cat, but the vet thought she probably got hit by a car."

Gwen seemed a bit unsure, but Rhys was convinced. "Yeah, where I grew up in Cardiff it was almost like living in the country. Now, with the traffic and people not knowing their neighbors, I wouldn't want my girls to be wandering about. I bet I could build a nice big outside enclosure that they could play in."

"Or you could take them walking on a leash," Andy interjected.

"Oh come on…" Owen started.

"No you can," Andy continued. 'I've seen it on the telly; it's becoming quite popular."

Tosh snorted. "I'd never take you for an animal lover, let alone a cat fancier" she told Andy.

"I always wanted a pet when I was younger, but my mam said she didn't want the mess. I think it was really cause we were so poor that we couldn't afford another mouth to feed. So is there any chance I could adopt one?"

Jack and Ianto smiled. Andy had been sitting the last hour with the yellow tabby on his lap. "Let's see, if I had to guess, I'd say you'd want the yellow tabby, am I right?"

Andy suddenly looked down and realized that the cat was sleeping contentedly on his knee. "It's a fair cop."

At ten weeks, the kittens went to their new homes. Even though Ianto and Jack would get to see them occasionally, they shed a few tears as each one left the house.

"Be good," Jack said to the yellow cat as he kissed him and handed him to Andy. As he closed the door he started to cry a little. As Ianto hugged Jack he wondered about Jack's reaction, but after so many years together he knew that Jack would explain himself when he was ready.

"_I feel like I did when I left Boeshane. After Grey was taken my mother abandoned me. Left me to be taken care of by neighbors. She didn't care when I left, didn't even come to the spaceport to say goodbye. But at least our kittens are going to good homes and won't remember being abandoned by their mother. And I won't ever let anything bad happen to them, at least for as long as I'm on earth."_

Andy named the yellow tabby Sunny for his color and his cheerful disposition. The two black cats went to Gwen and Rhys. They named the green-eyed cat Sheba, and the golden-eyed cat Cleopatra (Cleo for short). The calico ended up with a lovely neighbor down the street who had just lost an elderly cat. She had another middle aged cat and wanted a young but quiet companion for him. Chelsea, as she was named became best friends with Tiger, who resembled a plushy toy far more than a ferocious animal.

With all of his friends now having cats, Owen sighed and bought more antihistamines.

Jack and Ianto ended up keeping the two black and white males. Tux kept his name and the other cat became known as Tails. And as they grew, Tux and Tails continued to bring great joy to Ianto and Jack. And their antics made them laugh so hard, they often ended up wiping tears from their eyes.

As Jack predicted, the winter was brutal. But on the coldest nights they were both snuggly warm in bed with their cats curled between them. Jack smiled as Tails was tucking himself under his chin. Tux was already curled around Ianto's head purring and kneading furiously.

"_This really is the cat's pyjamas," _Jack thought as he drifted off to sleep.


End file.
